Real Images From NASA Show the ‘Cosmos’ as a Space-Time Odyssey

With the premiere of the revamped “Cosmos” series, NASA used this opportunity to showcase the imagery and missions that are such a big part of our explorations of the Universe, live-Tweeting during the show:

This mosaic of M31 merges 330 individual images taken by the Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope aboard NASA’s Swift spacecraft. It is the highest-resolution image of the galaxy ever recorded in the ultraviolet. The image shows a region 200,000 light-years wide and 100,000 light-years high (100 arcminutes by 50 arcminutes).Credit: NASA/Swift/Stefan Immler (GSFC) and Erin Grand (UMCP)

On August 31, 2012 a long filament of solar material that had been hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona, erupted out into space at 4:36 p.m. EDT. The coronal mass ejection, or CME, traveled at over 900 miles per second. The CME did not travel directly toward Earth, but did connect with Earth’s magnetic environment, or magnetosphere, causing aurora to appear on the night of Monday, September 3.The image above includes an image of Earth to show the size of the CME compared to the size of Earth.Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

This planetary nebula’s simple, graceful appearance is thought to be due to perspective: our view from Earth looking straight into what is actually a barrel-shaped cloud of gas shrugged off by a dying central star. Hot blue gas near the energizing central star gives way to progressively cooler green and yellow gas at greater distances with the coolest red gas along the outer boundary. Credit: NASA/Hubble Heritage Team

This Hubble photo is of a small portion of one of the largest seen star-birth regions in the galaxy, the Carina Nebula. Towers of cool hydrogen laced with dust rise from the wall of the nebula. Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI).

3 Responses

the show is a little simple (which is understandable), but it’s fun to watch and it’s so great to see a show of this nature being broadcast in a primetime slot. i’m looking forward to the next episode.

Indeed! Seeing it for what it is, a fantastic way to ‘win’ more people from the masses into the fold of those seemingly few of us (at least in the US) who actually realize that all the devices that science nay-sayers use use to tweet, post, troll, comment, plus1, thumb up and all-in-all DISMISS the validity of science…… exist ONLY because science is correct. I know it’s hard for some to believe, but your personal electronic device was NOT invented from information gleaned from the Bible, Koran, Bhagavad Gita, et al….